The present invention relates to a support arrangement for radius arms, and, more particularly, to a support arrangement comprising an outer support arrangement part, an inner support arrangement part, an elastomer body located between the outer and inner support arrangement parts and having a stop located at one end of one of the support arrangement parts to limit relative motions of the outer and inner support arrangement parts in one direction of a support arrangement center line, which stop has a centering surface concentric with the center line of the support arrangement part carrying the stop and facing towards the support arrangement part arranged to be brought into contact therewith, which centering surface, in a predetermined position of the support arrangement parts, is at a distance from the end of the adjacent support arrangement part.
Support arrangements are shown in DE 40 17 275 A1 and DE 34 18 006 C2. An elastomer body provides these support arrangements with stiffness such that, when the vehicle is being driven, there is effective damping of wheel longitudinal vibrations and shocks acting on the vehicle wheel in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The stop associated with one end of the inner support arrangement part is used to limit the axial displacement in the direction of travel of the inner and outer support arrangement parts relative to one another in the case of extremely severe impacts directed onto the vehicle wheel in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. If the side forces to which such support arrangements are matched are exceeded, such support arrangements permit an unallowable elastokinematic change to the axle half affected.
In addition to the configuration shown in the patent publications already mentioned, which configurations form the starting point for the present invention, support arrangements with a stop having a centering surface are also known from DE-AS 23 42 990 and JP 2-38118 (A). In these arrangements, however, the stop and one of the support arrangement parts support themselves on one another continuously so that, under the action of extreme longitudinal and transverse forces, no mutual displacement of the two support arrangement parts such as to provide a positive correction to their radial displacement will occur. Also, FIGS. 12 and 13 of DE 36 19 755 A1 finally show further technological background of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an elastic support arrangement of a configuration of the type mentioned at the outset which, even under the effects of extreme force at right angles to the support arrangement center line, permits only such elastokinematic changes to the axle half as are still desirable or defined and which, in the case of corresponding, mutually superimposed longitudinal and lateral forces, operates so as to correct the mutual displacement, resulting from these forces, of the two support arrangement parts relative to one another.
The foregoing object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention by providing the centering surface of the stop has an annular groove narrowing conically inwardly and accommodating an end of the support arrangement part to be centered, and a groove bottom of the annular groove forms a centering bed.
Equipping the stop with an annular groove formed in the centering surface and forming a centering bed offers the advantage that a relative radial displacement between the two support arrangement parts can then only take place to a defined extent under the action of lateral or radial forces.
If, in addition to forces acting at right angles to the support arrangement center line, axially directed forces are also transmitted to the support arrangement, the end of one support arrangement part, which is being displaced in the direction towards the stop, is caused to be displaced during this axial displacement by the outer peripheral surface of the inwardly conically narrowing annular groove in the stop so as to align the two support arrangement parts coaxially relative to one another in a direction opposed to the effective force directed transversely to the support arrangement center line.
Given a sufficiently large axial force, complete compensation will then be provided by the centering bed of the annular groove for any initial radial displacement of the two support arrangement parts relative to one another (i.e., track stabilization).